Abdul Malik Abbott

State Property (2002) - Lions Gate Films, marks the feature film directorial debut for Abdul Malik Abbott. He has been working in the film and video business for over 14 years on numerous feature films, commercials and music videos as a sound technician, music video editor and director. Born in New York and raised in Harlem by his mother Aisha Farid. Abdul's father, Randy Abbott was a film director, photographer and director of the Studio Museum of Harlem. Abdul was a member of the Boys Choir of Harlem before attending the acclaimed High School of Music & Art as a visual artist. During those four years of studying art at M&A, he attended the School of Visual Arts' film animation programs on the weekends. There he studied animation techniques and applications. Looking up to his film idols, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Abdul realized he had a stronger love for "live" film making. After graduating from M&A, Abdul enrolled in the School of Visual Arts with film being his major and worked during the summer as a P.A. and Intern on several feature films. He also worked at the Downtown Community Television center, learning the process of video production, editing, lighting, camera and sound, as well as directing documentaries and narratives. Abdul graduated from S.V.A at the top of his class with a Bachelor's degree in fine arts and a completed thesis film titled "99%". The film's content and style was unlike any other film in his graduating class. He was completely influenced by the images that he saw on the then new music channel, MTV. Its slick lighting, camera work, fashion and quick edits forever changed his way of thinking about filmmaking and storytelling. During the next few years, Abdul worked as a sound technician on several feature films including, Def by Temptation (1990) , City of Hope (1991) and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) and Mo' Better Blues (1990). Eventually, he started working on music videos as the sound "playback" technician. Soon, Abdul put his skills as an editor to the test when he convinced a friend/director, Millicent Shelton to let him edit a Kwame music video for her. That was the start of his second career. He started editing for other directors such as Paris Barclay, Darnell Martin, Lionel C. Martin and Hype Williams. Abdul's big break came when Ann Carli at Jive records gave him a chance to direct a video for a new Hip Hop group called "2 Too Many", a group formed and produced by Will Smith. After completing the video, he began shopping his reel as a director/editor. Abdul soon landed his next video for a jazz track by the legendary singer/actress Abbey Lincoln. The video "People In Me", landed Abdul a Gold Award for "Best jazz video" in the 1993 Worldfest film festival. In 1994 he was commissioned to direct a video for a hip-hop trio called "Original Flavor". The track was called "All that". That is where he met the group's manager Damon Dash and his partner Jay Z of Roc-a-fella records. Abdul was soon hired to directed Jay Z's first video, "I Can't Get Wit That", at a final budget of $5000. Then the Jay Z video "In My Lifetime" was soon to follow. That video was one of the first "Big Baller"-type videos that are now commonly seen, exploiting the images of wealth, champagne, diamonds, girls and bravado. In the next few years Abdul directed several other videos for Jay Z including the #1 videos for the songs "Ain't NoÉ" (featuring Foxy Brown) and "Dead Presidents" as well videos for other artists, including the Motown artists, Shades, The Whitehead Bros. and Ladae . Abdul also directed and edited a "live" concert video for Columbia Records artist Kenny Lattimore, which was featured on a BET special and featured on an ABC networks "live in concert" special. Over the years Abdul has also had his hand in role of Producer, producing Naughty By Nature's first video "O.P.P" for Marcus Raboy and music videos for C-Money directed by Jeff Byrd, Poor Righteous Teachers and co-producing several videos with his Producer Schavaria Reeves. In the late 90s Abdul collaborated with Damon Dash, Jay Z and Cha-Ka Pilgrim of Roc-a-fella Records to direct a series of "B-side" videos interwoven with narrative skits for Jay Z's new album. The project was shot over an eight-day period with an extremely modest budget. The project was entitled Streets Is Watching (1998). It was released in 1998 and was huge hit amongst new and old fans, earning the #1 slot for several weeks in Billboard magazine's "long form music video category". The long- form-mini-movie sold well over 100,000 units, becoming a certified "Platinum" video. Abdul has also directed hit videos for ALL CITY - "The Hot Joint", "The Actual", "Priceless", Killah Priest "One Step", Lord Finesse, Sauce Money, Jive recording artists, Caffeine, "Ride With Me", and Pastor Hezekiah Walker & The Love Fellowship Crusade Choir's track, "Let's Dance". "State Property" (Get Down or Lay Down) has recently been screened with rave reviews at the 2001 UrbanWorld Film Festival in NYC. Show less «